An Expansive Defense Of Internet Freedom

From a Dialog tower, née Suntel.

The cabal at the ITU seems to be losing their effort to bring the Internet under UN control. Which is good, because that’s as terrible an idea as it sounds. Now India is opposing the move, leaving Saudi Arabia, China and Russia as its proponents (which should tell you something). What was most interesting about India was their statement, perhaps the most expansive defense of Internet freedom I’ve heard:

“India feels there should not be a regulation of the Internet,” Rabindra Jha, the deputy director general of India’s telecommunications department, said in an interview. “It should be self regulating. It remains self regulating, like the solar system. Nobody regulates day and night, nobody regulates the year and months. It comes automatically.” (Business Week)

Well, indeed. Most people defend Internet regulation saying that engineers and individuals and the market can self-regulate, but the comparison to the solar system is both picturesque and compelling, especially for non-technical people. I wouldn’t say it’s an accurate comparison necessarily, but better than calling the Internet a set of tubes.